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UNICEF data shows more than 221 cases of child rape documented by service providers since the start of 2024 with 66 percent involving girls and 16 survivors under age five including four one year olds while a separate tally verified over 5,700 grave violations against children nationwide since the conflict began. The agency has described sexual violence as a tactic of war in violation of international law that has seen demand for support services nearly triple in the past three years according to UN Women assessments. In Darfur where pre war birth registration rates already fell below 50 percent per UNICEF surveys from 2014 the collapse of civil registry offices has compounded the crisis for newborns whose fathers are absent or unknown. Often referred to as Sudan’s invisible children – born in war with no legal identity these minors face stigma that prevents families from seeking official help with 90 percent of recorded cases involving relatives who refuse to report assaults.
BBC News reported the case of a 17 year old Sudanese girl identified only as Amira who was abducted by Rapid Support Forces members near el Fasher in early 2025 after the city fell following an 18 month siege that displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians. Amira whose name was changed to protect her identity told the BBC “This son of mine has no father no birth certificate and no national number” after she endured two months of repeated rape that resulted in pregnancy and subsequent flight to a camp where she gave birth with assistance from the International Medical Corps and the Nada Al Azhar Foundation. Eight months later she remained unable to register the child because hospital notifications require absent paternal details a barrier that also blocks vaccinations nursery enrollment and basic medical care according to the foundation’s protection director Abu Bakr Yousif Yaqoub.
The Nada Al Azhar Foundation for Disaster Prevention and Sustainable Development has recorded numerous similar instances across conflict zones where mothers many of them under 18 lack the capacity or documentation to navigate registration processes the group’s director general Shaza Ahmed told the BBC from Port Sudan. Ahmed stated “As a Sudanese woman my greatest fear and concern for children born as a result of rape is that we are facing a whole generation that will live under stigma danger and fear” while noting that Sudanese law grants children the right to identity yet enforcement has crumbled amid the fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces. Nearly five million children have been displaced by the war a figure UNICEF assessments place at the core of heightened vulnerabilities including abandonment and repeated exposure to violence in camps.
Sudanese lawyer Majida Idris explained to the BBC that the Child Act of 2010 permits registration of children born outside marriage but requires the mother to file an assault report that triggers social services and civil registry involvement a step rendered nearly impossible in Darfur where offices have shut down entirely. Idris added that the absence of documents does not just mean the absence of a piece of paper but denies the child access to education healthcare and legal recognition urging reactivation of registry services in safer areas. UNICEF has launched targeted birth registration campaigns in less affected regions such as Red Sea State where over 100 children gained identities daily at some schools yet such efforts have not reached the most insecure parts of Darfur and Kordofan where casualties continue to mount.
A UNICEF report from earlier this year found that 33 percent of documented child sexual violence survivors were boys who encounter additional stigma in reporting and accessing care while overall child protection indicators have deteriorated sharply with more than 300 children killed or wounded in the first six months of 2026 alone. The foundation’s work with Amira included locating her family in a displacement camp and providing psychosocial support that her mother described as a miracle after months of separation and fear. Without broader restoration of civil services and legal pathways these children risk permanent exclusion from Sudanese society as the conflict that began in April 2023 shows no signs of abating into its fourth year.
